OCA welcomes social theorist and philosopher Alberto Toscano on
Friday 21 September at 19:00, with a lecture dedicated to the rift
between logistics, on the one hand, and protest, dissent and
intervention, on the other. In his paper, Toscano will analyse how
the current focus on the politics of logistics and the insistence
on invisible circulation might be undermining or sidelining the art
of protest.

Invisibility, connectivity, the immaterial and the systemic, all
associated to modern economic life, pose persistent problems that
are even more urgent in times of depression. It is normally in
these times when the interruption of the flow of goods and people
makes the system and its mechanics visible. But, as Harun Farocki’s
investigations into the language of war and marketing show, images
of the symbols of power and resistance are often made not to be
seen. Perhaps because of this, much recent artistic work that seeks
to unsettle consensual perceptions of our world has been profoundly
preoccupied by logistics – by the mutation of maritime space into a
the space of containers, by the creation of virtual theatres of
war, by the innervation of lived experience by abstract matrices of
information and finance… However, is this almost ubiquitous focus
on the logistical taking us away from the art of protest? Should we
trust its suggestion that the only strategies we have left are
blockage, interruption and sabotage, and no longer proposals for
change?

Alberto Toscano has written on militancy, egalitarianism,
religious thought and social protest, in order to explore ‘the
point at which theology (or religious practice and conviction) and
social protest intersect’. His 2010 book Fanaticism: On the
Uses of an Idea addresses a poverty of analysis and
imagination resulting from the wish to remain within a closed
theoretical horizon, in which, adopting the words of Margaret
Thatcher, ‘there is no alternative’. In response, Toscano proposes
a sociological critique that ‘can function as a potent antidote to
the role of the concept of fanaticism as a kind of negative
talisman, a tool for exorcism’, shifting the understanding of
fanatical movements ‘beyond the merely ideational level, to that of
social groups, interests, discourses, as well as their patterns of
communication, and their specific intensities and patterns of
emergence’.

ABOUT THE PROGRAMME
‘The
Articulation of Protest’ is a programme of two lectures that
looks into strategies that have emerged in recent times through
actions and communication, and in dialogue or confrontation with
existing legislation, with the aim to secure free circulation of
information and knowledge in the face of the state's or capital's
attempts to control and to commodify them. In doing so, they
explore individual and collective initiatives and other strategic
choices, and discuss them in relation to a history of critical
organisation, of free speech and activism.

The Swedish historian Rasmus Fleisher opened the programme on 14
September with a lecture about current developments and polemics
within ‘social media’ and the reality of a social engagement within
these channels.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Alberto Toscano
Alberto Toscano is a social theorist, philosopher and a lecturer in
sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. Toscano is the
author of Fanaticism: On the Uses of an
Idea (2010) and The Theatre of Production:
Philosophy and Individuation Between Kant and
Deleuze (2006). He has translated into English several
works by Alain Badiou, such as Logics of
Worlds (2009), The Century (2007)
and Handbook of Inaesthetics (2005), and is
co-editor of Alain Badiou’s Theoretical
Writings (2004) and On Beckett (2003).
He has co-translated and prefaced Éric Alliez’s The
Signature of the World (2004) and Antonio
Negri’s Political Descartes (2007). He has
published several articles on contemporary philosophy, ontology and
social theory. He sits on the editorial board of the
journal Historical Materialism, and edits the Italian
List for Seagull Books. He is currently completing a book on
representations of contemporary capital,
titled Cartographies of the Absolute (with Jeff
Kinkle).

For more information on the programme, please contact OCA’s
press officer Maria
Moseng.

I do everything myself, from the beginning, spinning,dyeing and later weaving the yarn into the heart.It thus becomes weaving of art, not the art of weaving.
- Hannah Ryggen,
Vi lever på ei stjerne, Inga Elisabeth Næss, Samlaget 2002

In connection with the closing of the exhibition 'Forms of Modern
Life', which includes two major works by Hannah
Ryggen (1894-1970) on loan from The National Museum in
Oslo, OCA has commissioned the recreation of a recital of
Vevnad as originally composed by Arne
Nordheim (1931-2010), and now performed with Hans
Josef Groh on cello and Sverre Riise on
trombone. Asbjørn Blokkum Flø will steer the
MIDI-file for the Disklavier. This recital marks the first and only
time this experimental composition has been revisited and
reperformed publicly since the introduction to audiences in 1993.

Arne Nordheim composed Vevnad in conjunction with
Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum's 100th year anniversary as a
tribute to Hannah Ryggen, an artist who for nearly four decades
created tapestries based on a committed social and political
engagement. The piece is a homage to the artist, her approach to
her medium, and reflects the concept of weaving on several levels:
the score consists of three sections, all named after technical
terms of weaving: Woven piece, Weft and Warp. The piano part is
composed and drawn in a manner that visually makes the notes in the
original score resemble woven material. During the actual
performance Nordheim steered a Disklavier from a computer with the
front of the instrument removed facing towards the audience. The
strings and the mechanical movements inside the Disklavier thus
resembled a shuttle moving through the warp of a loom.

Arne Nordheim premiered Vevnad on the opening of the 100th year
anniversary exhibition at Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum on 2
October 1993, together with cellist Ingrid Stensland, trombonist
Arne Johansen and Sigurd Saue who steered the MIDI-file for the
Disklavier. The concert was held in the Hannah Ryggen Hall
surrounded by her tapestries.

About the artists

Arne Nordheim (1931-2010) made his
international breakthrough in the beginning of the 1960s with the
song cycle Aftonland (Evening Land, 1957), followed by
Canzona (1960) and Epitaffio (1963). His work has
since then been played by leading orchestras and musicians around
the world, and he is considered the Norwegian contemporary composer
who has achieved the greatest recognition beyond the boarders of
his own country. Nordheim received a large number of prices and
honors including the Arts Council Norway Honorary Award (1990).
From 1981 he was the tenant of Grotten, the honorary residence
offered by the State to the nation's most outstanding creative
artist. In 1997 he was elected honorary member of the International
Society for Contemporary Music.

Hans Josef Groh studied cello with Valentin Erben
and Martin Ostertag in Germany. Until 1992 he was a member of
Ensemble 13, one of Germany's leading ensembles of contemporary
music. He is currently a cello player with the Oslo Philharmonic
Orchestra, in addition to being a regular player in the Oslo
Sinfonietta, and a member of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. He
has taught at the Badisches Conservatoir, Karlsruhe, Germany and
The Barratt Due Institute of Music, Oslo, Norway. In 2010 he was
awarded Spellemannsprisen for his CD Die 7.
Himmelsrichtung, in the category for contemporary music.

Sverre Riise studied trombone with professor
Ingemar Roos at the Norwegian State academy of Music, and has held
the position as principal trombone in the Norwegian Opera Orchestra
and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, where he still is today. In
2000-2001 and 2006 he was playing with the Malaysian Philharmonic
Orchestra, and he has occasionally been playing with the Norwegian
Radio Orchestra and the Oslo Sinfonietta. Sverre Riise is currently
a teacher at the Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo.

Asbjørn Blokkum Flø holds a diploma in composition
from the Norwegian Academy of Music. Since 1999 he has worked as a
freelance composer and sound artist with focus on instrumental
music, electronic music and sound art for radio and installations.
Flø's works have been performed in a number of festivals, including
DEAF (Dutch Electronic Arts festival, Rotterdam, the Netherlands),
Synthése (International Festival of electronic music and sonic art
- Bourges, France), Ultima, Oslo and the Ibsen Festival, Oslo. He
has represented Norway in Ars Acustica twice.

OCA would like to thank Rannveig Getz Nordheim for generous
permission to perform Vevnad, Sigurd Saue from NTNU for
the MIDI-file, NOTAM - Norwegian center for technology in music and
the arts, for technical assistance and Jan Bjørnar Sture/KHIO for
lending of the Disklavier, Jan-Lauritz Opstad from Nordenfjeldske
Kunstindustrimuseum, Harald and Peter Herresthal from NMH and
Øyvind Nyvoll from Ensemble Ernst. The event is curated by Tonja
Boos from OCA.